- Grill artsy shot. Garage work cabinets not included with car.

Acura 2018 TLX Review

Even when purchasing at an end of model year sale with a huge discount, caveats are warranted that will carryover to the '19 models.

3y ago
3K

I've always been a Acura fan. I think this attraction first started when a friend of my older sister drove me around town one day when my parents weren't available. As I recall it was an early model Integra but more importantly my sister's friend had long red hair and was gorgeous. I think the association stuck in my brain.

My first new car purchased was a '99 Integra LS when I was 25. It was the lower end 140hp engine but it looked good in the dark blue factory paint, was easily to add bolt on mods, and was a fun car to drive. A zippy 205hp '05 TSX -- the European Accord for our friends in the Old World - - followed which I drove for over ten years until it just got to be one repair too many so I was forced to find whatever I could and ended up with a base model '17 Accord deciding it was time to be a practical father living in the Texas suburbs with a pretty long commute every day. Assuming it lasted long enough I could give it to my son when it was his turn to drive as well.

That was the plan until a few months ago when my daughter's '05 Accord was totaled in a rear end accident. To its complete credit, the Accord while totaled, crumpled, bent, and crunched in such a way that no one in the car was injured. Ugly car, but ugly with a purpose.

So last week there I was in a dealership again ready to take order of a new '18 TLX as Acura starts their new year product line in July so previous models are quite negotiable. I was about to purchase another Accord but to be honest as I drove the previous one over two years I honestly felt like I had enough of it. Practical? Yes. Affordable? Absolutely. Reliable? Of course. But there just wasn't a feeling of enjoyment behind it. I even tried the new model Accords with the redesigned driver area and the 1.5 turbo and came away really impressed especially with the new digital display and center console infotainment. But, I just didn't want to dip back into that well.

So perhaps I could rekindle some of that fun with a new Acura car. But which? The ILX is based on the previous generation's Civic frame so it's way too small for someone over six feet. The RLX is simply too expensive and of course the NSX is a pipe dream reserved for highly successful lawyers and managers in this part of the country having their mid-life crisis. So the TLX it is.

Expected trade-offs

I know the Acura line in its current iteration is considered the low end of luxury sedans and it's price reinforces that perception. Has it always been? Probably so. BMW, Mercedes, and Audi all carry a lot more acceptance in luxury circles. Acura is an also-ran and I'm personally okay with that as long as the trade-offs don't take away from the overall finished product. An Acura's leather won't be quite as nice, the rims won't be quite as bespoke, it's 0-60 will be a little less and it overall just won't be as refined. I get that and I'm okay with it because in the end the car still has Honda reliability, build quality, potential for longevity, and since I'm a dad on a budget, repairs and maintenance won't be nearly as costly as those other brands. So what if they cut a few corners like not ensuring the leather for the seats only comes from cows who were hand fed organic oats or whatever. They're leather seats, they feel good, and the car won't fall apart after making the last payment.

So what's good..

Well, for starters, I like some of the aesthetics. Gone is the sawtooth/bucktooth look and they replaced it with something with a bit more flair. Little interconnected diamonds making a complete grill with an over sized Acura emblem in the middle. Admittedly I think the over sized emblem is a bit much. Reduce that by about a third and I think it will be just fine.

Close up view.

Close up view.

The new LED lights look good too I think

The new LED lights look good too I think

From the side there's a hint of the third generation TL look that was so popular in the mid 2000s too. But gone are the Euro style blinkers on the sides. An omission they should rectify.

I chose the inline four cylinder so the average gas mileage between highway and city won't completely drain my bank account. It gets about 27 mpg combined so with my fifty mile round trip commute I shouldn't have to stop more than once a week for a fill up. If you really don't care about acceleration or speed then just switch the Dynamic Mode system to Econ. mode full time and your highway mileage could easily get into Accord territory of the high 30s. Since this is DriveTribe though let's not kid ourselves. Normal mode will be the minimum unless you're on a long multi-hour highway drive.

I can't complain about the safety features either. Blind spot detection, cross lane warning which is a godsend in a parking lot, lane assist, collision avoidance, and cruise assist. It's all there with Honda's usual practicality and quality.

The rear wheels have Precision All Wheel Steering (P-AWS) too so while it's not all wheel drive (need the V6 for that) the wheels in the back will angle every so slightly when in a turn to help go through it and still feel planted.

There's even a few party pieces which are probably standard on luxury cars but I have never had before now. Press the brake hold button on the center console and when you're at a stop light the rear brakes stay engaged and you can take your foot off the brake. There's a camera behind the rearview mirror which if it detects light diffraction on the windshield it means there's water on the windshield so the wipers automatically engage. Finally, I don't know if this is a feature or a defect, but the assisted cruise control seems unable to detect motorcyclists. I guess it will keep accelerating to its desired cruise speed until it knocks them off the road. The bumper is pretty big and has an angle like a cattle pusher on an old steam powered train so a few bikes in the way shouldn't pose a problem or scratch the paint.

But...

And now we get into those tradeoffs and unfortunately the ones I have seen subtract from the overall experience.

Acura took just a few too many horses out of the four cylinder engine. It will still get going well from a standstill but this car weighs in at about 3500 pounds and has 206 hp and 180 torque. Compare that with it's 2006 TSX predecessor I owned which weighed about 300 pounds less and had similar horsepower and about 20 less torque. A few extra torque don't help much. An extra 10-15 horsepower might be the inline-4s sweet spot between zip and efficiency Replacing the stock air intake with a third party intake might help. For my needs and budget going to the V-6 with 289hp just isn't feasible but if you have a shorter drive or just need the powerrrrrrr then it may be for you. I think a lot of people see it the same way though. When shopping there were plenty of new and certified used V-6s still on the dealer lots but four cylinders are much harder to come by at this time.

Yeah, just jam a few more horses in there somewhere. Plenty of room.

Yeah, just jam a few more horses in there somewhere. Plenty of room.

I assume the 8-speed transmission is supposed to offset this deficiency but honestly unless you're going to run your car in the Sport or Sport+ plus mode all the time the engine won't normally rev past 4000 before switching gears so you won't get to even hear the engine noise a great deal and when you do hear it the noise is rather muted into the passenger cabin.

In regards to the car's Dynamic Mode system you can push a button on the center console to change the car's performance. Econ. goes for fuel efficiency but is otherwise rubbish as it makes the steering and gas pedal feel mushy. Normal driving mode is probably where you'll keep it but if you want the gas pedal to be extra responsive switch to Sport mode as even the four cylinder engine jumps and responds well in this mode when you touch the gas. And if you just really have to use the flappy paddles on the steering column go to Sport+ but be warned those flap paddles feel like weak plastic.

In any of these modes though if you're already accelerating into the 30-60 mph range and you press hard on the gas there's a distinct delay between pressing the gas and hearing the engine come to life. You press the gas, the tac starts to jump, and then the engine comes to life and starts moving you. The engine seems to be only paying half attention. "Wha-- you want what? Oh sorry, here you go!"

The design of the center console is where some trade offs which do hurt the final product occurs. Is it functional? Sure, but why aren't both displays touch screen. Why is the top one so far back from the first? Why are some of the radio controls on the touch screen on the left side rather than the right?

Those buttons, right there. Move them to the left next time

Those buttons, right there. Move them to the left next time

What really needs to be jettisoned from this product is the Acura navigation system. I honestly don't think the basic look has changed in about 15 years. Look at this:

It looks older than a Blackberry Bold.

It looks older than a Blackberry Bold.

My brother in law had a CL Type-S when I first met him in 2004 or so. I am certain the nav system in his CL looked just like this. Now, plug your Android or Apple phone into the USB Port and then you can use Waze or Google Maps and everything is fine then. What has their Nav team been doing all these years? Couldn't Honda have spared some money to help them out. Did all the Nav system budget over the past ten years get directed to the NSX design team? To add insult to injury if you want to upgrade the maps so they stay current, you have to buy a DVD every year that costs $150 from the dealer. No way.

While they're gutting that toss the on-board voice activation system too. I have a midwest accent so there's not a Texas drawl going on here but the car's voice activation system never worked properly when trying to put in voice direction commands. This can be fixed too with just using the voice recognition built into Google and Android Auto.

Here's Waze in Android Auto.

Here's Waze in Android Auto.

If you want to have an OCD moment, plug in your phone and use its map but watch the progress indicator between the tac and speedo. You'll notice the distance to a checkpoint or stop showing on the center indicator and the map screen are always off by a tenth of a mile.

Main instrument cluster. The center section at top can show all sorts of things.

Main instrument cluster. The center section at top can show all sorts of things.

Even for the 2019 TLX's I think a lot of these issues might hold. While Acura has released an A-spec model for the I4 and V6 models those changes are only for exterior looks and interior creature comforts. So they're adding extra weight to the car but without any extra power to the engine. Any major changes to the performance of these cars will have to wait until at least 2020 or later when a Type-S variant may be introduced if the rumors are to be believed. Acura has already shown they may be directing their best features toward their SUV line of MDX and RDX models which, like the rest of the industry, outsells their car counterparts in the same brand.

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Comments (6)

  • Hi congratulations - your post has been selected by DriveTribe reviews Ambassador for promotion on the DriveTribe homepage.

      3 years ago
  • Welcome to Drivetribe James!

      3 years ago
  • So I've had the car for over six months now and I think that warrants an update but not a full article so if you're reading this now, welcome. In the original article I mentioned a lag in the acceleration. That seems to be gone now and I can only assume it was either me getting used to this engine or the car computer adjusting to my driving habits. Either way it's great now.

    I've learned this car's 8 speed auto transmission is dual clutch and has a torque converter which apparently is not the way transmissions are usually done. This means that any dual clutch jerkiness in low speed or stop and go traffic is eliminated because of the torque converter. THAT means the acceleration is very, very smooth when you hit the gas and start going through the gears. Put it into Sport mode and you have some fun acceleration. The computer can handle the gear changes just fine so when you're in Sport mode and are stomping the gas it won't change gears until red line so you get to feel and enjoy the VTEC kick in (bro) around 5000 rpm. You can even use the paddles for shifting yourself if you want to but I've found the computer does them quickly and well enough to not bother.

    Also, I originally mentioned that maybe some bolt on parts would help with a few more horses. Everything I'm reading though seems to suggest it might not. The existing air intake is right near the front of the hood so that's about as cool as air can get. If you were to put in a short air ram intake on, that might actually pull in hotter engine air. A cold air induction might be the way to go but I don't see any for the inline-4 engines, just the V6 3.5 models so I probably won't bother.

    Real world driving with a mix of highway and city gets me a net result of about 28-30 mpg so I'm filling up about once a week and I often just alternate between the 87/89/93 octanes. The difference in mpg's between the three seems negligible so I'll put in 93 every once in a while for the additional additives and cleaners that normally come with the higher octanes.

    The infotainment system is still hot garbage though but the changes showing up in their other 2019 models are promising if they trickle down to the TLX.

    If I could have waited another year to buy a car I would still have bought this but possibly gone with the A-Spec variant which has a little better styling, bigger wheels, and some more features on the interior including a fun looking red interior.

      2 years ago
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